Problem is that its a gateway drug. Marijuana itself may not have the effects, but it opens the possibilities of trying other drugs that are addictive, and suddenly its a slippery slope to coke or ice.

Legalising marijuana just makes it easier to get onto that slip-n-slide and thats the big worry.

cause it's too much effort to get off our asses.
nah, i think it's far underreported. every stoner i know including myself became a polyuser pretty fucking easily and quickly. i'd never even been exposed to any other drugs before i started smoking weed (and was reluctant at first, dat peer pressure yo), but then again i probably would've been reluctant to smoke if i hadn't been drunk before.

'Check your facts" followed by "everyone agrees".....with no facts or supporting evidence.

There is not one single drug that is the gateway drug - to deny that ONE is not and the OTHER is the gateway drug is completely ignorant.

In my personal experience, I've never known someone who drinks alcohol to naturally move on the smoking ice, where as everyone that I know that smokes ice, started on weed. So take what you want from that.

to be fair, a lot of people there were dying doing heroin they thought was cocaine for a while. how you can make that mistake as a past user of cocaine is beyond me, but as a newbie in the red light district of amsterdam i can see it happening.

Everything is a gateway to something else.... That's the worst argument in history. It's got nothing to do with the drug at all, more the mentality of the person taking said substance. There's plenty of junkies out there who never smoke weed, and plenty of people who smoke weed who have never taken other drugs.
People can get addicted to anything (pokies are a prime example.) Are pokies a gateway to becoming a high roller blackjack player? Not likely.

nailed it. i smoked a bit of weed in high school and uni ....and maybe a little here and there on the weekends a few years after that, but that was it. never went and tried anything else. now my biggest vice is wine. aldi wine. so cheap....so good.

what a complete load of BS. look at the growing number of countries around the world where pot is legalised. Hard drug use has not noticeably increased and in fact a lot of other crime has decreased.The courts are not clogged up with kids busted for having a joint and the police can focus on policing real crime.

But is it a gateway drug due to decreased inhibitions and use? Or is it a gateway drug because you're buying it off scummy drug dealers who might offer you something harder for free or cheap every now and again for being a loyal customer?

I somehow don't think your local chemist is going to be offering coke or ice on the side with your medicinal weed.

Having observed people who do and don't get into addiction problems over 50 or so years, I dont think anything would change at all if you took MJ out of the equation. Some would still try to find something to get high on and some would not.

Ye...no. The slippery slope is a common logical fallacy that is often used when you either don't have a logical point or can't articulate one. It isn't a real thing, the whole gateway drug argument is not based on any solid evidence.

The truth is that marijuana can be very harmful if abused, as can alcohol. The difference between an addict and a casual user of any drug is their support network of people around then, not the legal status of the drug they are using.

With respect, I'm not using it because I dont have a logical point or cant articulate one, I'm using it because I believe it, and its the simplest summary of that belief. I've watched too many people move from weed to hard drugs to believe otherwise. People that dont have addict prone natures, but were just given the opportunity to try harder drugs at the wrong time. Some walked away, others didnt.

As someone above commented. They've never seen a drinker move on to smoking ice, while every ice smoker they know started with weed. Marijuana is a very common theme with hard drug users, and thats proven. If people dont want to believe it, thats fine, but almost every hard drug user starts with weed and moves on. Dont believe me, go ask them.

If people want evidence, try http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/marijuana/marijuana-gateway-drug - first google hit I found.

*edit* quick edit. That link also supports what others are saying, which is that not everyone goes on to do harder drugs. What it does do is support that it increases the risk, which is the point I was trying to make.

And also see my other comment below. I dont have a problem with legalising cannabis, I'm more saying that it needs to be done carefully.

The reason it's considered a 'gateway drug' is because to obtain it, it puts you in contact with an undesirable element of the community. Legalising it would take that away, thus it no longer being a gateway drug.

Any drug is a gate way to the right person and one that is even far worse is prescription drugs.....Its up to the person command since and some people have no control over what they do or care less what they do to others ....so do not attack Marijuana just because you know some one who is a week ass and can not control there life .... Our law enforcement need to stop spending money on things they were never put in place to do and that is policing people they were put in place to police crime ....

Hold on a second. I've sat through plenty of idiotic comments over my post (and a few good ones), but where have I attacked marijuana? I've simply said its a gateway drug, thats it.

Go back and read what I wrote. Marijuana leads to other problems. Thats it. Nothing about other things not doing the same, just that marijuana can be a catalyst, and have given a bit of annecdotal evidence backing up my opinion. Those arent the only times, just the most dramatic, and closest.

If you bothered to read further, you might actually see that I have no problems legalising it either. Dont assume I'm attacking weed because it makes you feel better, I'm not. But I'm realist enough to see that it makes it a lot easier to go down a worse path, and that it needs to be carefully managed before anything goes mainstream.

I'm sure an electrician will be able to correct me, but I'm pretty sure if you make whatever your plugging in inductive (as opposed to capacative) then that affects your meter in some way. That could be totally wrong though...

No it's not. You have been sold a furphy, and this coming from someone who doesn't do drugs.
What we get wrong is how we consume it. In India, they boil the leaves for around 3 hours and then make a paste which gets put into food. This way, you get all the medicinal benefits and the "high" is evened out. It will, however, put you to sleep for a whole day if you're not careful...

All good, your @ grunt tagged me. What I find funny here is that I merely voiced an opinion, and get to see the best of the internet at work. I personally have no problems with people smoking weed. Seriously. And I dont have a problem with it being legalised either. I agree its going to happen, and that it makes a lot of sense to legalise it.

But that doesnt change that it leads to other things. I've seen it in my own family and some of my (former) best friends. I could give details, not really relevant though, but when I've seen people naturally progress from cones to cocaine, heroin, and/or ice in the space of months, theres a warning there that needs to be considered, thats all.

They might have gone down the same path if weed was legal, they might not, we'll never know, but for the various Governments, giving legitimacy to the process is a dangerous decision. One thats very hard to undo. I smoked when I was younger, and only ever tried harder drugs a couple of times (nothing worse than speed), but there were plenty of opportunities to try, and plenty of times there was coke or similar available on demand. And the peer pressure was intense at times, made worse by the weakened decision making being high did to me.

It'll happen, I have no doubt, but the first state government to legalise it is going to be ballsy in doing so. My money's on Tasmania to be the first.

I don't think marijuana is a gateway drug.
I think people who are experimenting with drugs are putting themselves in a gateway situation for other drugs.
People who smoked marijuana are more likely to smoke only marijuana and some even, not drink alcohol due to marijuana philosophical reasons......

So, it's a shame when people say it is a gateway drug but in fact it's the individual who are in an experimental phase in their life who are opening themselves out there to other hard drugs.

I don't like marijuana, I've been constantly exposed to smokers since before I was even born but frankly, tobacco is worst. I can't stand the smell of that shit. Not much into booze either, don't get drunk per se, just sleepy.

The fact is, any of these 3 substances could lead someone to harder drugs, I find it very unlikely that a sober person like myself would ever consider heroin or cocaine. With pot I think the real issue is the underground culture more so than the drug itself, legalizing it would put a hamper on a lot of the underground markets & less people would be exposed to harder drugs, booze lowers inhibitions & is heavily associated with the party scene which often leads to party drugs like estacy, smoking in general just encourages addictive behaviour.

In the end, none of the are gateways, just loose association with bigger problems, people are ultimately responsible for their own decisions, the trinity of booze, tobacco & cannabis may affect you but that doesn't remove your responsibility.

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